7 things to consider to improve your presentation skills
How can you be a good and effective speaker? It’s not based on how perfect your preparations are or how great is your speech, but it’s how you connect with your audience. Here are guides you should consider to improve your presentation skills that will make your lecture more engaging and leave an impact on your audience. Let’s get started:
1. Audience
Of course, what you say should vary depending on who you are presenting to. If your audience is primarily experts, you should omit basic information and focus on more technical content. You will need to speak and explain technical terms from time to time.
2. Presentation time
The time allotted for presentations at academic conferences is generally 20 to 30 minutes. Be sure to check the presentation time in advance and plan your presentation according to the time allotted.
3. First impressions matter
First impressions are so important that the first 10 to 20 seconds will determine whether or not your audience will be interested. First, confidently introduce yourself, including your name, affiliation, field of expertise, and a presentation title, to gain the audience’s trust. After knowing “who” the presenter is, the listeners are interested in “why” the presenter conducted the research and “what” is revealed by the research. is. If you share these main points at the beginning, the content after that will be much easier to convey.
4. Be aware of the difference between a paper and a presentation
Remember that papers are meant to be read, but presentations are meant to be heard. Listeners have a shorter attention span than readers, so keep your content concise and clear. Also, instead of looking down and reading the manuscript aloud, make eye contact with the listener, and sometimes leave a gap to give the listener time to digest the information. Let’s talk.
5. Incorporate elements of storytelling
Storytelling, which incorporates testimonials, episodes, and specific examples related to research into presentations, is an effective technique for keeping listeners interested. Also, when you start storytelling, ask questions such as “Do you know why ○ is X?” or “What do you think about Y?” In this way, you can keep their attention and give them something to think of in what-if situations.
6. Number of characters on the slide
The number of words included in one slide in a general presentation is about 40. While academic and business presentations cannot be compared equally, presentation professionals find that the amount of text on slides hinders communication. In addition, displays with many images stimulate the listener’s right brain, which is responsible for the emotions of the audience. No matter how excellent the data and logic you have prepared, it will be useless if you can’t stimulate and convey the listener’s emotions effectively. You can create powerful presentations using the right tool. You can access your file through Canva and convert pdf to PowerPoint versions for hassle-free and easy-to-customize slides.
7. Q&A
The question-and-answer period after the presentation is an opportunity to communicate what needed to be conveyed in the presentation or information that could not be covered. So, approach it with a positive attitude. It’s okay if you can’t answer the question. Be sincere in telling them that you did not consider the points pointed out and will consider them in the future.
Presentation skills that effectively convey what you want to say to your audience can be acquired over time. The best way to improve your presentation skills is to go through several occasions and learn from the audience’s reactions and feedback each time through trial and error.
